Zhenyuan old town镇远古镇

About this place

When it comes to the southwest of China, the old towns of Dali, Lijiang and Yangshuo attract the most visitors.

But Zhenyuan, a 2,000-year-old river town in under-appreciated Guizhou province, offers adventurous travelers the chance to see something a little different.

It is featured in few travel guides, which is a surprise。

The old streets of Zhenyuan are not as commercialized as the towns mentioned above.

What makes it really stand out is the way it gives the visitor a taste of other great qualities of China, all within a short ride or hike outside town.

The Wuyang River cuts through Zhenyuan and hills and mountains tower over the town. At the northwest edge of the town is the entrance to the southernmost section of the Great Wall.

Many Chinese themselves don’t know that there’s a southern section of the Great Wall so close by.

Zhenyuan’s section of the Great Wall may not be connected to the ones known and loved just outside of Beijing, but it is part of a 300-kilometer wall that extends east into Hunan province that protected the Ming Dynasty from the local Miao ethnic tribes more than 500 years ago.

The views over the town are spectacular. During spring and summer the surrounding terraced rice fields outside Zhenyuan are the stuff of landscape photographers' dreams.